Saturday, June 14, 2014

In My TBR Stack:

Beauty Queen: Inside the Reign of Avon's Andrea Jung
Deborrah Himsel
Palgrave Macmillan
Hardcover


From the publisher's website:

Andrea  Jung, the glamorous former  head of Avon, was arguably the world’s  most charismatic and effective CEO, credited with the astonishing turnaround  of the venerable brand. Avon’s  board was filled with tough-minded, successful CEOs and other high achievers, but when Jung walked into a room wearing her Chanel suit, custom- blended lipstick  and signature pearls, every head  turned  and she had them eating out of her hand. She seemed incapable of making a wrong move, until, amid declining sales, an investigation by the SEC, and a brand in crisis she stepped down in late 2012. In Beauty Queen, former Avon VP Deborrah Himsel uses Jung’s story as a case study for two timeless leadership questions: What  makes great leaders great? And what makes them fail? She explores both Jung’s early years of success as well as the combination  of missteps that led to her downfall, including her failure to nurture  Avon’s  direct selling channel, the erosion of trust that occurred as a result of frequent decision reversals, and her ignorance of operational details, including  how her people secured a license to conduct door-to-door  sales in China, that led to a federal investigation. Through  interviews with other CEOs, Avon executives past and present, and leadership experts, she explores the unique challenges Jung faced as a female Fortune 500 CEO; the thin line between pride and hubris; and the danger of the so-called “halo effect” in our high-stakes times.



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